Situation: The 2022 World Cup drew in a record number 15 million viewers in the United States with over two thirds of that number coming from people aged 18 to 35.

On the opposite end, reading in the US is on the decline as the younger generation is reading less than half the number of books of previous generations*.

*https://wordsrated.com/american-reading-habits-study/

Brief: Wild Detective, a local Dallas bookstore, wanted to inspire this age demographic to rediscover their love of reading.

Objective: Utilize the younger generation’s love for soccer to get them interesting in reading again.

The 2022 World Cup drew in a record number of viewers in the United States. On the opposite end, reading in the US is on the decline. Turns out, the same group of people watching the World Cup were the same who are not reading. Our goal was to inspire more people to rediscover the love of reading by using the sport they love.

Bookball Nations

Bookball Nations is a seven-game soccer tournament hosted by Dallas bookstore, The Wild Detectives, where fictional nations from books face each other to see who will be crowned Champion. These highlights contained audio commentary from the match with easter eggs and characters from the book with the thrill of soccer, much like how many across the globe receive soccer news. Plus, the final was a full live play-by-play commentary of the game that made listeners feel like they were listening to an

We wanted to reach the younger generation. The same one who represented over two thirds of US World Cup viewers and are reading less than half the books of older generations*.

We launched our plan to get these individuals to rediscover the love of reading by publishing our podcast series socially and digitally. Giving them something to quickly and easily listen to and share since they’re already on their phones.

*https://wordsrated.com/american-reading-habits-study/

Bookball Nations was released as a podcast series from January 12th to January 22nd on The Wild Detective’s Spotfiy account along with their Instagram page. This timing was just after The World Cup just when people were starting to get a big craving for more soccer-like entertainment. Inspiring countless fans to share the series.

This campaign showed book lovers a whole new side to their favorite characters and showed soccer lovers that books can be just as fun as your favorite sport. Increasing in-store traffic for The Wild Detectives by 20%, web visits by 35%, and online book sales by 47%. Motivating more young people to read.